The pavement continued to deteriorate to the point of making the two-way path almost unusable. Then, to add insult to injury, San Francisco Public Works (DPW) came by in August and paved the truck and car lanes–but left the bike lane as it was.

A crew was there today cleaning debris off the path. The workers on the scene weren’t sure when the striping would get done.

This crew was cleaning the end of the Cargo Way protected bike lane today

So why did it take so long to repave it? One crew member said “money.” The other said “We didn’t have small paving machines. We had to rent them.”

Isn’t that kind of the same thing?

They looked at each other, shrugged, and nodded.

So far, it doesn’t look as if the missing segments of the much-maligned chain-link fence are getting replaced. Streetsblog has a request in with DPW to find out if what’s left will be torn out, repaired, or left to rust.

Another look at the smooth pavement and the remains of the chain-link fence

The traffic that IS there often tends to be high-speed (40-80 MPH!), and often large trucks. Of course, neither a cyclone fence nor concrete footings will prevent injury in those situations.

The fence is a restriction on cyclists freedom, and little else. If a rider has to leave the lane for any reason (flooding, debris, blockade), its next to impossible to do so with a 1000′ fence hemming one inside. If you want the ‘illusion’ of safety (and thats what it is), then put chain link segments every other panel. But leave room for a rider to exit the ‘tunnel’. Please.

I suspect this location was an opportunity to spend Transpo funding on a ‘cycling project’, and little else. I use the wide lane on the other side on the return trip and experience little discomfort or concern.

I rode loops on Cargo Way in the morning for exercise, with the recycling and mail trucks barreling past for a couple years before the separated bikeway got started. I started to feel the tug of the dark side ( see comment: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/10/22/study-protected-bike-lanes-reduce-injury-risk-up-to-90-percent/ ). As a recreational rider who was perfectly fine with the morning adrenaline rush this route provided (and from the concrete & rendering trucks on Amador St) it felt like an imposition of the bikeway here. Certainly the chainlink fence was intended to make people feel safe (for relatively cheap) with the trucks, etc., but it was so high that it also blocked visibility….I had to stop for the stoplight because I didn’t trust my mirror/over-the-shoulder glance for traffic which now now had the right-of-way to turn right across the bikeway.

In the end I realized that this route WAS so much less stressful, and you had to trade some inconvenience & interrupted strava routes for the HUGE change in safety that it provided.

Once the bikeway was in and there was dedicated bike-only space, I was amazed by the number of wheel tracks left in the mud and dust on the bikeway.

RichLL Commentary Track

When someone replies to me without directly answering every question I pose it’s because they can’t. When I reply back and don’t answer the question they pose in response it’s because I choose in my infinite wisdom not to.

Walt

So you cannot answer the questions either?

Walt

RichLL, I only asked two questions. He couldn’t answer either of them, clearly, and sought instead to ask a question he preferred. Obviously I demand he answer my questions before I educate him on why his suggestion is misguided.

Although of course by not answering my question, he revealed as much as if he had.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

As cyclists who use Cargo Way in the Hunters Point/Bayview neighborhood know all too well, the bike lane, once celebrated as San Francisco's first on-street protected bike lane, is in a state of disrepair, with broken pavement, a dangerous, tire-grabbing groove, and a busted fence. And in a stark display of how some city officials regard bicycle safety, the city repaved the adjacent car/truck lanes in August, but skipped the bike lane.

Bike network expansions are going in at a rapid clip so far this spring. In Golden Gate Park, parking-protected bike lanes on John F. Kennedy Drive are mostly finished on the stretch in front of the Conservatory of Flowers, and drivers already seem to be picking up on the new parking arrangement. Progress on new […]

As Streetsblog readers have no doubt seen in Hoodline, the SF Examiner, Curbed, Bernalwood, or on various social media, the newly opened stretch of protected bike lane on Valencia Street, from Cesar Chavez to Mission, got off to a bad start, with confused motorists parking all over it. Fortunately, the protected bike lane was open for […]

A freshly installed Mississippi Street bike lane, made of thermoplastic, which dries in 30 seconds. The installation was a little tricky because of the rough street terrain but the kick ass DPT crew got it perfectly straight. Photos by Bryan Goebel. Though it might sound incredible to San Franciscans who have followed bicycle issues for […]

New on-street bike lanes separated from auto traffic are nearing completion in Palo Alto and Menlo Park, and a handful of neighboring cities have plans to install them too. Separated bike infrastructure gained traction among local planners after Caltrans approved Class IV Separated Bikeway design standards [PDF] in December 2015. The first protected intersections were built […]

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. As people in the protected bike lane movement start to get a handle on 2015, it’s worth pausing to look at the magnitude of 2014’s success. If any one chart can tell […]